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December 30, 2011 12:35 AM UTC

Terror Grips The Pueblo Chieftain--Republicans Might Lose?!

  • 14 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We turn again to our friends at the Pueblo Chieftain’s editorial board, a subject we’ve spent some enjoyable time with in the recent past. From some of the more egregious distortions we’ve seen this side of the North Korean News Agency to an hysterically fact-free lovefest for Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler and his “quest” to uncover chimerical “vote fraud,” the Chieftain’s editorial page has had an increasingly troubled relationship with, well, the facts.

It does amount to a clearly identifiable partisan slant, but it’s been more interesting for the objectively wrong information these editorials contain than the overt partisanship. But for good measure, we’d be doing our readers a disservice if we didn’t note the Chieftain’s editorial from last Friday–factually wrong and partisan enough to be a GOP internal memo! And on the subject of the GOP’s defeat on the payroll tax cut extension, worries of very partisan consequences:

This has been a game of political chicken, with conservative House Republicans wanting a full-year extension of the tax holiday, while Democrats have insisted on the short-term fix. We suspect the liberals hope to exact more concessions from Republicans during debate after the first of the new year…although the payroll tax holiday has not produced the jobs that were touted by President Barack Obama and congressional liberals, there are other issues at stake here.

…So, while congressional Democrats seem to have won this skirmish, it’s important for Republicans to cut their losses and approve the Senate bill. Then, when Congress reconvenes next month, they should propose serious policies that would benefit the nation and show voters the Grand Old Party is worthy of support. [Pols emphasis]

Otherwise, the electorate may decide that the GOP brand is tarnished and return the Democrats to power once again.

First, the factual wrongness: negotiations over the full-year extension of the payroll tax cut broke down over how to pay for it. Democrats had proposed a “surtax” on the highest income earners to pay for the continued payroll tax cut. When Republicans could not agree to this, the two-month compromise was brokered between Senate Republicans and that chamber’s majority.

Which means the demanded “more concessions” we’re being warned to look out for from “the liberals” next year consist of the same thing we were arguing about this year: that is, how the full one-year extension of the payroll tax cut will be paid for. That’s how one tells the story accurately–to be distinguished from the Chieftain’s abridged-beyond-recognition version above.

But that’s the part you know. Much more hilarious is the Pueblo Chieftain apparently waking up from their Thursday afternoon nap and realizing that yes, editor-in-chief Bob Rawlings, this might really be bad for Republicans! Maybe they ought to “cut their losses” on hiking taxes on 160 million Americans, and come up with some “serious policies!” Otherwise “the brand” could be tarnished and, so unpretentiously assumed to be a bad thing, Republicans might lose!

If you think they get some unintentional accuracy points for their ending, we’ll allow it. But they seem to be entirely clueless about why the House GOP’s actions were hurting “the brand.”

And that is by far the most important part of the story.

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14 thoughts on “Terror Grips The Pueblo Chieftain–Republicans Might Lose?!”

  1. How does a sleazy ultra-conservative editorial board survive in a Democratic stronghold?

    Southern Dems. should be hammering the paper over this hyper-partisan tripe.

    1. because Bob Rawlings owns the paper. It’s that simple.

      At least it’s not owned by Deanie Singleton or a national chain. There’s a lot to be said for local ownership, even if the owner’s politics are at odds with the majority of his constituents.

      1. and it turned into such a rag that it got down to about 200 subscribers before it was sold.

        Rawlings might own the paper but his subscribers can choose to get their news elsewhere.  One of the beauties of capitalism is that people don’t have to buy shitty products.

        1. That is not a sigh of resignation. It is a sigh of frustration.

          The Pueblo daily paper, herinafter The Rag, is owned by a Rawlings family foundation. I am told, that several years ago, there was a serious attempt to buy the paper on the part of local unions. Since print media is  in trouble, there are now several local people that are planning to do an online newspaper. Haven’t heard how that is progressing.

          Anyway, most of the Dems that I know do not subscribe to The Rag. I don’t. When I realized that turning past the editorial page without even looking at it made my chest tighten, I unsubscribed. After all I had the News. RIP. So now I have the Post. The Rag costs around $10 a month for home delivery and there is no reduction for a years subscription. I got the Denver Paper for $45-$50 for a year. Most of the people that I know get their news online.

          46% of all registered voters in Pueblo County are Democrats. That is down from 49% eight years ago. That is due to the increase in unaffiliated voters. Then there are 30 something percent unafilliateds and the rest are Repugs, Greens, etc. ALL the County officials and the DA are Dems. There are now only two Repugs on the City Council and we plan to replace them with D’s in two years.

          If anyone has a solution to our problem, please post it here. I would prefer that it is legal.

          1. I guess the only realistic solution in the short term is to ignore this kind of blatant bias and don’t subsidize it.

            I still like to read the dead tree version of the news over a cup of coffee in the morning.  It is a tough habit to break.  I read online news during the day but having the paper sprawled out on the table and going through it section by section it is one of those happy indulgences that seem so natural in the morning.

            The problem with letters to the editor is that they get to decide which ones get printed but if you never send one in you’ll never know if they are fair about it.

  2. http://www.chieftain.com/opini…

    This is one of the most surreal, goofiest editorials I’ve ever read. Usually papers go apeshit to hold local government accountable.

    The paper’s owner goes to bat for the City Manager in, “Calm Down,” saying it’s no big deal he’s sleeping with the Human Resources Director–and then somehow turns that into an attack on unions and city employees!

    “Who does he think he is?” he asks of a councilman who dares to call for an abuse of power investigation — and then demands that any investigation be called off in the interests of “good governance.”

    It’s all the unions’ fault, of course!

    1. then no harm no foul.  Corruption and infidelity run in the veins of Republicans.  It just goes with the territory when you elect them to office.  Newt loved his country so much that he had to bang his mistress to show his loyalty.

      1. The city charter requires that the city manager live within the city limits. Mr Pacheco lives in the county. Council recently voted some money for him to move to town after a year or more of noncompliance.

  3. but not really very liberal. They have done some progressive things that assist their economy such as the riverwalk. And, their water company is as cutthroat as they come.

    Perhaps the far right nature of the Chieftain hardens resolve in Pueblo Dems?

  4. It is the Republicans who don’t want single issue votes.  They are the ones who try to load up every bill with unrelated amendments and then play extortion games with the original issue.

    It would be interesting to see what sources were cited for the statement that the payroll tax didn’t create jobs.  Where did the president say that x number of jobs would be created and what measurements were used to track job creation from these programs.  Also how do you account for jobs that weren’t eliminated because people were able to buy things.  That was one bullshit sentence that reeked of lies.

  5. when the official Republican position was that “tax cuts don’t need to be paid for!” Because it’s YOUR money, not the government’s!

    That applied only for tax cuts that went to the rich.

    1. rides where you have to come y up to the height mark to remember that.  That was like something GOP Moses brought down from the mountain on tablets right up until Dems wanted to give wage earners a tax break.

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